Summerwears sales beat low non-summer as traders blame inflation in Harpurhey
- Customers prefer holiday to buying furniture during summer
- Traders finger increase in prices as drawbacks
Summerwear sales outperformed general sales as consumers rushed to stock up on summer clothes and footwear at Harpurhey Centre.
While summer wears’ traders were happy about their sales, non-summer wears’ traders said sales this summer were slow compared to last year’s. They reasoned that increases in prices of commodity when consumers were on fixed income, preference for vacation and summer wears affected their sales. They believe that if prices of products fall to pre-COVID period, it would encourage people to buy.
A sandal trader, Steve Gavin, said summer sales had picked up. He noted that many people have started coming to buy sandals and trainers. According to him, sales slowed down during the winter.
Gavin said: “It is getting busier now. January, February, and March have been quiet.”
Another clothes traderEli Hamstrung said summer sales have begun with many people buying.
Eli said: “It is doing well. Customers buy much more in the summer and at very cheap as well.”
However, traders in other lines of items lamented low patronage.
Jacqueline Davies said business has been fluctuating. She noted that people did not have money to buy because the prices of items keep increasing.
Davies said: “They have not always got the money. Everything is going up. It is affecting me.”
She was concerned about the future of her business, and she did not know how long she would stay in the market to make a living. She pleaded that the government should help stabilising prices in the market. Davies observed that the summer sales this year fell below last year.
The manager, British Heart Foundation, Harpurhey Centre, Danny Hamarcourt said summer sales slowdown because people prefer going on holiday to buying furniture.
“Good days and bad days come together. They flow into one. You can have good spells wave of few weeks and its good and then some weeks of being bad,” Danny said. She maintained that the business saw a lower customer base since COVID and with the prices increased. She said sales slowed down during summer and acknowledged that previous years were a lot busier.